okay. this one, this is funny. first lady michelle obama might just be the coolest mom ever. well, maybe after my own mother. i love my mom. check her out dancing with jimmy fallon. ♪ ♪ >> oh, guess what went up again today for the -- it is so expensive.

today when i was filling up the attend asked if i wanted self-serve, full serve or layaway. that's how bad. >> researchers discovered a chemical in the brain that causes women to talk more than men. yeah. it's called chardonnay. >> frankly, i don't understand why everyone is so upset over eating horse. we don't feel guilty when we happily consume the rest of noah's ark! >> is it because their our friends in movies and tv shows? well, i love bacon. so i just hope spielberg never makes "war pig." ♪ >> got to the love the dougy. my entire team here may be twlaer i said matthew mcdonehey. of course, it's matthew

mcconaughey. apologies to matthew and everybody on the team. coming up on "cnn saturday morning," it starts right now. good morning. i'm victor blackwell. randi kaye is off today. thanks for starting your day with us. we're starting with lance armstrong. the department of justice is now set to join a lawsuit against this disgraced cycling star. armstrong admitted using performance-enhancing drugs when he won his seven tour de france titles. on the suit armstrong rode for the postal team and alleges armstrong and his manager filed false claims for federal money because they had to agree to play by the rules, but using drugs broke the riles and the original suit was founded by original teammate floyd landis and could be worth $100 million. oscar ps sps freistorius is.

top a point. granted bail eight days after the killing of his girlfriend reeva steenkamp. back in court in june, although it could be months after that. meanwhile, he'll live under bail over conditions posted here. we can't go back to his home, had to give up pes passport, can't even go near an airport, surrendered weapons, can't drink alcohol and has to report to police every monday and friday. our senior international correspondent nic robertson is in johannesburg. what are people saying about, before this death they considered a national hero? >> reporter: and they've been tracking this, following it on twitter. following it on, any way that they can. the newspaper headlines are full of it, the television stations have been full of it here and people have heard this decision. they're divided. i. think it's fair. i think the man is nuts. we don't know if he's guilty or

not and to try him now, it's not really fair and i hi they've set the right conditions for the bail. >> to think that despite all the evidence that would-of-was mounteded up against him he still managed to get bail. you know? it's -- i guess it's inflation of -- >> reporter: the legal experts here are cautioning, bail hearing is not really a trial. they're going to get deeper into a lot more technical criminal issues yet. so the verdict here most people think ultimately when he does go to trial he probably will end up in jail. victor? >> one of the stipulations of jail is that he can't go back to the crime scene, which is his home. so where is he staying? >> reporter: he's staying with his uncle right now. it's a very large house in a well-healed suburban neighborhood of pretoria. high walls. big gates on the compound. parole officers showed up there this morning.

his uncle has said he's had a bath, some food. there was a sense really that he been eaten much over the past six days, but the important thing for the family is they've been spending time with him, trying to sort of heal him. he's obviously shown a lot of distress while in the courtroom, and there are concerns about his mental well-being. his family, spending time with him in the uncle's house. >> nic robertson for us live this morning in johannesburg. thank you. now to washington, and that's where the white house and congress are playing a high-stakes game of chicken. they are fighting over forced spending cuts. they're set to go into effect on march 1st, just a few days away, but, really, do they affect you? what's the trickle down, if there's no deal? cnn the chief business correspondent ali velshi takes a look. >> reporter: forced government spending cuts take effect march 1st. it's what washington has been calling the sequester. it's a stupid name for a stupid thing. >> these cuts are not smart. they are not fair. they will hurt our economy.

they will add hundreds of thousands of americans to the unemployment rolls. kniss is not an abstraction. people will lose their jobs. >> reporter: you heard the big numbers. 1.2 trillion dollars in cuts over ten years. $85 billion this year. that's 13% cuts to defense, 9% to everything else. >> we're weeks away from the presidential sequester and the president laid out no plan toe eliminate the sequester and the harmful cuts that will come as a result of it. >> reporter: the forceful cuts were created during the debt ceiling debalk's, passed by congress and signed by the white house. a worst-case scenario that would be so bad it would force lawmakers to make a deal. now it's become a poison pill that the nation may have to swallow beginning march 1st, and if it happens, 70,000 children kicked off headstart programs, putting more than 14,000

teaching and staff jobs at risk. fewer inspections for things like horse meat in your burgers. cuts to mental health programs mean almost 400,000 seriously mentally ill people will go untreated. homeland security drawdowns would result in longer wait times at airports and scaled back cyber security would mean more vulnerability from hackers in china and at home threatening our infrastructure. furloughs and layoffs would affect 800,000 workers in the defense industry at the same time that north korea is testing a nuclear bomb. cuts at the irs would mean fewer tax return reviews, and longer waits to get refunds. and more than 100,000 people would be thrown out of emergency housing and on to the streets. one way or another, everyone is going to feel this, while washington continues to play the blame game. >> the bottom line is very simple. the republicans have proposed devastating cuts. >> washington democrats have gotten used to republicans

bailing them out for their own lack of responsibility. >> reporter: ali velshi, cnn, new york. >> ali mentioned expected problems for travelers, the spending cuts would change the way airports work. transportation secretary ray la hood has this warning. >> flights to major cities, like new york, chicago and san francisco and others, could experience delays of up to 90 minutes during peak hours. because we have fewer controllers on staff. delays in these major airports will ripple across the country. >> okay. so new york, chicago, san francisco, but it's not just the big airports that will have to scale back. smaller airports across the country could be forced to close. the transportation department could close control towers at as many as 100 small airports. and this is not the weekend to visit new england. several states are about to get a third straight weekend of snow. now, it won't be as bad as the blizzard of two weeks ago, but it won't be much fun, either.

meteorologist karen maginnis is tracking the storm for us. there are people waking up this morning just saying, come on! >> i know. this has been one of the most unusual systems to try to forecast for. we watched the one that moved across the central plains and really walloped that area. show you pictures in a second. now secondary area of low pressure that's going to make its way across the mid-atlantic. as it does, it's going to start to generate some moisture, and i say it that way, because yesterday we looked at all of the computer models, and they were all over the place as to just how much snowfall is going to occur right around boston, maybe new york. extending up to nashville and bangor and portland, maine. this area of low pressure by this afternoon and this evening is going to just be off the coast, but then it starts to make its turn towards the east. as a result, on the back side of that, yes, some snowfall. so the window that we're looking at is between, right around midday today for places like boston. going into tomorrow morning.

so how much snow does that allow? well, the computer modelling are saying, maybe two or four inches of snow, but in other places across interior new england, could see substantially more. take a look at what happened as we look at the snowfall total ace cross the central plains. i point this out because we have very dramatic video. kniss is from an ireporter and her name is amanda laviana in her office building in wichita. heard a noise in the office that was a roar. thought, is this an earthquake? ran downstairs and caught video of huge chunks of ice that were falling off of her building and you can see and hear her response to that. very dramatic picture s amanda, thank you for sending that in. 22 inches in russell, kansas. kansas city set at day of

snowfall total. they shatterrd ed. they saw almost twice there. rainfall heavy, already is, in places around atlanta, down towards mobile. waking up to pretty good thunderstorms. four to six inches possible, and look at those thunderstorms erupting along the gulf coast, and that spells out some flash flood watches as well as warnings across these regions. we'll stay on top of it and hopefully will narrow it down how much they'll receive. >> hopefully not much for a lot of people. thank you very much, karen maginnis. a lot more coming up. a look at what is coming up. snore . gas prices on the rise while take-home pay is shrinking. a look at just how much your wallet is getting squeezed. tomorrow may be hollywood's biggest night, but it's racing's biggest day. we'll talk with the youngest

driver ever to win the daytona 500. and a plastic smile, a jointed doll. how one novelist is referring to the duchess of cambridge, but was it a harsh slam or a plea for sympathy? the sweet realizatu have a moment all to yourself. well, almost. splenda® no calorie sweetener. splenda® makes the moment yours™.

has oats that can help lower cholesterol? and it tastes good? sure does! wow. it's the honey, it makes it taste so... well, would you look at the time... what's the rush? be happy. be healthy. thto fight chronic. osteoarthritis pain. what's the rush? to fight chronic low back pain. to take action. to take the next step. today, you will know you did something for your pain.

cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a pain reliever fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. anti-depressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not for children under 18. people taking maois, linezolid or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaid pain relievers, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. take the next step. talk to your doctor.

cymbalta can help. [ female announcer ] roc® retinol correxion max. the power of roc® retinol is intensified with a serum. it's proven to be 4x better at smoothing lines and deep wrinkles than professional treatments. roc® max for maximum results. 13 minutes after the hour. good to have you this morning. royal watchers working overtime defending katherine the duchess of cambridge. and himry mantel referred to katherine as a jointed doll with a "plastic smile" paraphrasing here. listen for yourself. >> i saw kate becoming a jointed doll on which certain racks

hung. in those days she was just a shop window mannequin entirely defined by what she wore and these days as a mother-to-be, draped in another set of attributions. once she gets over being sick the press will decide she's radiant and will find that this young woman's life was nothing. her only point and purpose, like other royal ladies, we have come to, her only point in purpose being to give birth. >> hmm. now some people are saying, mantel was lecturing how the media and public view katherine, but the tabloids saying she's bashes the duchess. helping us sort this out, i want

to start with this. what do you think about the comments? >> well, frankly, this sort of thing is very rare to have a top novelist say what she said and the way she said it and have the prime minister and the opposition as you mentioned a large amount of the press ferociously attacking her, this is certainly an amazing episode. the lecture that hillary mantel, and i don't say she's won the book of prize twice and is highly respected is entitled, royal bodies, and it was about the way we perceive royalty. what was, i felt, unacceptable about it, was the language she used to describe the duchess of cambridge. for example, to say of kate, the perfect plastic smile that she had. she was doll to hang certain

rags -- quite a lot of very personal language, and it is that, i think, a lot of people felt very objectionable. the other affect of this is that there's a certain intellectual snobbery about it. mantel is a superb writer knows the english language and also knows how to wound and there's a considerable amount in this. the phraseology, which could and should have been very different. >> you know what's interesting about this, it's that typically what we see in the british press is that many of the tabloids go after the royals, but in this case, it seems that they're pretty protective of the duchess. is that rare? >> i think it's unusual in one sense. they want it both ways because, of course, a lot of people bip the tabloids to read about the royals, and the more the tabloids can tell them, the more they read, and the sim bionic relationship, it's one of the considerable problems, as we saw

with prince harry, the prince harry interview where he showed intense dislike of the media. the problem with meaantel's lecture, much of it dealing with past centuries she uses and blaming the wife of henry viii who met an unfortunate end, and examples and she looks in a good bit of detail at the problems of being, so to speak, in the royal cave, but an illustration of the way mantel speaks is her visit to buckingham palace once for a function and the other occasion was receiving a medal from the queen. there's no doubt that her behavior and her attitude and the way she's described staring at the queen is unusual. so i rather feel that her success has gone to her head, in the sense she is extremely good at historical figure, and the

way she describes that, but it's says a good deal about her, the language she uses, to describe the royals today. >> well, we reach pd out to hillary mantel for response and we're told she's not commenting on this to anyone. richard fitswilliams thank you for this, as we see what happens with the fallout from these comments. >> pleasure. google putting out some high-tech specs. we'll give awe sneak peek at the web giant's latest offering. tax refund time is here. i'm with malcom and kelly who are looking for a great new smartphone. you think you can find one at walmart? maybe. let's go see. alright. let him tell you about sprint. we've got the samsung galaxy s iii on the sprint 4g lte network for just $148! nice! wow. and -- you get a $50 gift card. awesome. we can split it. i don't think so. okay. [ earl ] see for yourself. get a $50 walmart gift card when you buy any samsung smartphone on the sprint 4g lte network. now through march 2nd. walmart.

so i used my citi thankyou card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? and with all the points i've been earning, i was able to get us a flight to our favorite climbing spot even on a holiday weekend. ♪ things are definitely looking up. [ male announcer ] with no blackout dates, you can use your citi thankyou points to travel whenever you want. visit citi.com/thankyoucards to apply.

[ female announcer ] roc® retinol correxion max. the power of roc® retinol is intensified with a serum. it's proven to be 4x better at smoothing lines and deep wrinkles than professional treatments. roc® max for maximum results. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

in its first downgrade ever, the uk lost its aaa rating. on friday the rating agency moody's knocked the country down by one notch saying the uk's rising debt don't match up with other top-rated companies. microsoft says it was hacked. investigators found computers had been infected with malicious software but added no customer data was affected. the third time to report a hack attack in recent weeks. apple and facebook also reported being victims of cyber attack. google finally releasing details about its highly anticipated google glass. including a video showcasing some features that includes being able to make videos, stream wi-fi, the high-tech specs also come with a high price tag. they go for a little less than $1,500 a pair when they go on sale to the general public later

this year. those google glasses are not the only thing causing sticker shock. have you checked out gas prices lately? some gas stations in l.a. are selling fuel at well above $5 a gallon, and as felicia taylor explains, that's not the only thing that has folks feeling pinched. >> reporter: victor, we're in one of the most dramatic run-ups in gas prices in the last decade. the average price of a gallon of reg lettular ended the week alm0 cents higher than a week ago and almost 50 cents more than a month ago. the end of the payroll tax holiday has take an bite out of every american's paycheck since the beginning of the year and a delay in tax refund checks going out, congress' delay forced tough choices. this week we found out just where people are cutting back. a new survey from the national retail federation found 24% of shoppers putting off big-ticket

purchases. the same number of people said their forgoing everyday treats, like an after latte and almost half plan to pocket their tax refunds rather than spending them. that has retailers worried. this week walmart reported results for the last three months of 2012. they weren't bad. in fact, holiday sales were pretty good, but the world's largest retailer warned february sales started slower than planned and said it would continue to monitor economic conditions that impact sales. the good news, prices won't stay high forever. aaa expects gas prices to peak in early spring and prices shouldn't go higher than last year when the national average topped out at $3.94 a gallon and the u.s. department of agriculture is predicting a record high corn crop this summer putting downward pressure on meat, poultry and dairy prices and help ease some pain at the grocery store by the end of the year. victor? >> flee felicia taylor, thank you. and most senior whose took this year's flu vaccine got

nothing out of it, says the cdc. researchers say the rates of hospitalization and death for the most common strain. flu this year were some of the highest they've ever seen. the vaccine did help more than half of those under 65. police are searching for answers in the death of elisa lam. the latest on the mystery surrounding that woman's death. at a dry cleaner, we replaced people with a machine. what? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it? hello? hello?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello? ally bank. your money needs an ally.

today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers.

let's get an update on mortgages. rates are still pretty low this week. take a look. who do you think i am, quicken loans? ♪ at quicken loans, our amazingly useful mortgage calculator app allows you to quickly calculate your mortgage payment